St. Pete Urban Forestry
In 2023, St. Pete started a Community Forestry program. This neighborhood based format focuses on forestry planning and development by aligning with the priorities of the resident groups.
Priorities could include tree planting for a blend of the following strategies:
- Long lived trees that provide shade and energy efficiency
- Trees that supply natural habitat
- Trees that provide seasonal floral display
St. Pete Community Forestry
Robust community engagement is vital to this format. To begin, resident groups, or “tree teams” are trained to gather data on existing neighborhood trees to better understand the species biodiversity, age and condition of the existing forest asset, and the mapping of potential planting locations of new trees.
In 2023, eight new neighborhoods were trained on TreePlotter , an online tree inventory mapping tool. Currently, 15 neighborhoods are actively performing their inventories and more than 4500 trees have been mapped.
St. Pete Urban Forestry
The City of St. Pete uses TreePlotter , a tree inventory program. This program records trees and generates economic benefits using iTree data sourced from the USDA US Forest Service research.
Over the last 30+ years, the Forest Service has studied the impact common native and introduced tree species has on communities by tracking species, size, land use, and condition factors. This allows us to annually report these community tree benefits.
Old Southeast Tree Benefits
This chart illustrates the 2023 tree benefits derived from Old Southeast’s inventorying of 860 trees.
This annual benefit amount increases significantly when additional benefits like energy efficiency (shade), increase in property value, and positive impacts on resident health are included.
St. Pete Tree Biodiversity
One of the vulnerabilities of St. Pete’s urban forest asset is its marginal species diversity. While most of the top 10 species are native to the Pinellas peninsula, the top two species make up more than 50% of the total tree species. The urban forestry standard is to have no more than 5% of any one species and no more than 10% of any one genus.
Managing biodiversity increases forest stand resilience from biotic diseases and abiotic vulnerabilities.
St. Pete Tree Age Diversity
St. Pete’s urban forest has a second vulnerability: minimal age diversity . A healthy and resilient urban forest should have a mixed age. An example of this vulnerability is St. Pete’s large Laurel Oak losses that were all planted in the same ten year period. This chart reflects the uneven distribution of tree size which heavily favors trees in the 6 12” and 12 18” diameter size.
Best urban forestry management practice is to conduct tree planting investments in five year increments across the urban forest stand.
St. Pete’s Urban Forestry Canopy
St. Pete currently has a 27.2% canopy cover based on 2017 land cover data. The economic value of our forest is nearly $11 million annually, plus an additional $53 million over the course of the trees’ lifetime.
In 2022, the City of St. Pete adopted a 30% tree canopy goal. We are heavily invested in tree planting to subvert tree losses, improve community health, reduce heat island effect, and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Urban Forestry Action Items
There are several tasks that neighborhoods and residents can complete to improve St. Pete’s urban forest. Listed below are some suggestions for neighborhood tree teams to create a more resilient community forest:
- Complete a street and park tree inventory in your neighborhood
- Coordinate with residents to inventory trees on private property
- Collaborate with St. Pete Urban Forestry staff to develop plans and set neighborhood tree canopy goals.
Questions?
Would you like to schedule a neighborhood tree inventory training?
Please contact Dean This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.